Privacy

This page covers burdhousemedia.com and the Manuscript Snapshot. It is written to be read, not skimmed past. If anything here is unclear, write to amber@burdhousemedia.com. The Score Games app has its own policy on the Score Games support page.

What we collect

When you send a Manuscript Snapshot sample, you give us:

• Your name, your email address, and the working title if you choose to share it.
• Your answers to the questions on the form: genre, where the manuscript stands, its current word count, your publishing goal, your editing timeline, your expected editing budget, and your biggest concern in your own words.
• The writing sample itself, up to 500 words.
• Whether you would like Amber’s occasional notes on writing. That box is unticked unless you tick it.
• If you answer it, how you heard about us.

When you ask us to email you the Snapshot link, you give us your email address. We keep it with the time you asked, which ad or post brought you here (as described below), and whether the email went out. We use it to send you that one email, and at most one reminder if no sample comes from the same address within a few days. We check that by comparing it with the addresses on samples we receive. If you tick the box for occasional editing tips and resources, we also use it for those; the box is unticked unless you tick it. We use it for nothing else.

When you use the Score Games support form, you give us your name, your email address, and your message.

When you reserve a Book Alignment Intensive, the Reserve buttons take you to a payment page run by Stripe. Your card details go to Stripe and never pass through this site. Stripe tells us your name, your email address, and that you paid, so that we can arrange your sessions. We keep those with the amount, Stripe’s reference number for the payment, and a note of when our welcome email to you went out. That email is sent from Amber’s own address as soon as your payment clears. Stripe’s own handling of what you enter there is described in the Stripe Privacy Policy.

With any of these forms, our server records a scrambled version of your internet address (a salted hash) so that one connection cannot flood the form. The scrambled value cannot be turned back into your address, and it is never shown to anyone.

How you found us. When you arrive from an advertisement, a search engine, or a link on another site, the address you arrive on may carry tracking parameters (the standard utm_ parameters and the ad platforms’ click identifiers), and your browser may tell us which site you came from. We note those, along with the page you landed on, and keep them in your browser’s local storage until ninety days after the last such arrival. If you later send a sample, that note is sent with it, so we know which ad or post brought you here. When a Reserve button takes you to Stripe’s payment page, the campaign tags from that note (the utm_ values only) are added to the link, for the same reason. We record only the site you came from, never the full address of the page you were on, and never the search you typed.

How we use it

• To prepare and send your Snapshot. Amber Parr Burdett reads your sample and your concern, and writes or approves every word that comes back to you.
• AI assistance. A commercial AI service, with training on our data disabled, helps prepare a first draft. It receives your sample, your concern, and the answers about the manuscript itself: genre, where it stands, its word count, your publishing goal, and whether the sample is the opening. It does not receive your name, your email address, the working title, your timeline, or your budget. Nothing reaches you unread.
• To follow up. We may write to you about your manuscript and about editing it. You can tell us to stop at any time.
• The notes on writing, only if you asked for them. Each will carry an unsubscribe link.
• To know what works. The record of how you found us tells us which advertisements and posts bring writers to the Snapshot. We look at it in aggregate and alongside the answers on the form. We do not use it to build a profile of you, and we do not share it with the advertising platforms in a form that identifies you.

We do not publish your pages, make them available to search engines, or use them to train any AI model, ours or anyone else’s.

Analytics

This site uses Firebase Analytics, which is Google Analytics, to count visits: which pages are viewed, roughly where from, and on what kind of device. When a Snapshot sample is sent successfully, we record that a sample was sent. That event carries no name, email address, sample, or answers, and nothing that could be joined back to your submission. When a Reserve button on the Book Alignment Intensive page is chosen, we record that it was, and which button. When a reservation is paid for, the confirmation page records that it was, the amount, and Stripe’s reference number for the order. Neither carries your name, your email address, or anything you typed. Google’s own handling of analytics data is described in the Google Privacy Policy. Most content blockers stop analytics entirely, and the site works the same without it.

Our own record of your visit. Separately from Google Analytics, this site keeps its own record of each visit to a page, on our own server. It notes which page, how long the page took to load and how long it was on screen, how far down you scrolled, which parts of the page you reached, what you clicked or tapped, and, if a script on the page failed, the error it gave, with the order and timing of each. On a form it notes which fields you went to, whether you filled them in or pasted into them, and each press of Send with what came of it. For the sample box it counts the words in it. Nothing you type is kept by this record. It also notes the kind of device, system and browser, the size of your browser window, your browser’s language and time zone, whether this browser has been here before, and the campaign and site from the how-you-found-us note described above. The record holds no internet address.

Three random numbers hold a record together: one for the visit, one for this tab, and one for this browser, which is used until ninety days pass without a visit (Safari may clear it sooner) and tells us whether a visitor came back. None of them says who you are. Sending us something can connect them to you: a Snapshot sample is kept with the record of the visit that sent it, a reservation with the record of your return from the payment page, and a support message can be matched to a visit by its time. Through the browser’s number, that connects your name to this browser’s other visits too. We use these records to learn where our pages lose people. We share them with no one, and each is deleted after 180 days.

The Book Alignment Intensive page also loads OpenAI’s measurement pixel, because its advertisements run in ChatGPT. The pixel tells OpenAI that the page was viewed, that a Reserve button was chosen, and, on the confirmation page, that a reservation was paid for, with the amount and Stripe’s reference number for the order. That is how we know which advertisements lead to reservations. It sets two cookies of its own on this site, __oppref (thirty days) and __obref (one year), which hold OpenAI’s identifiers for the ad click and for this browser. We send OpenAI no name, no email address, and nothing you typed. OpenAI’s handling of that data is described in the OpenAI Privacy Policy.

The Manuscript Snapshot page uses OpenAI’s measurement pixel, because its advertisements run in ChatGPT. The pixel tells OpenAI that the page was viewed and, when a sample is sent successfully, that a sample was sent. That is how we know which advertisements lead to Snapshot requests. The pixel runs in a separate, empty frame, away from the form and from anything you type. We send OpenAI no name, no email address, no sample, and none of your answers. The pixel sets two cookies of its own on this site, __oppref (thirty days) and __obref (one year), which hold OpenAI’s identifiers for the ad click and for this browser. OpenAI’s handling of that data is described in the OpenAI Privacy Policy.

Cookies and browser storage

Analytics sets its own cookies, and so does OpenAI’s pixel, as described above. Beyond that, the site stores two items in your browser’s local storage: lead-attribution, holding the how-you-found-us note described above, until ninety days after you last arrived from an ad, a search or another site, and visitor, holding the random number for this browser and the date of your last visit, which is replaced by a new number after ninety days without one. A third, visit-session, holds the random number for this tab and goes when the tab is closed. If you ask us not to record your visits, the last two are removed and visits-off remembers your choice. Analytics also keeps data of its own in the browser’s database storage. Clearing site data for burdhousemedia.com in your browser removes all of it. The Snapshot form itself stores nothing while you type; if you leave the page, the sample is gone from our side.

Who else sees it

We do not sell, trade, or rent your information. It is shared only:

• With the AI service described above, which receives the sample and the manuscript answers only.
• With Stripe, which takes payment for the Book Alignment Intensive.
• With OpenAI, which receives the pixel’s events described under Analytics.
• With the companies that host our site and our database, which process it on our behalf and under contract. Google hosts the site and carries our email; the database runs on Neon.
• If the law requires it, or to protect our legal rights.

How long we keep it

We keep your writing sample for ninety days after we send your Snapshot, then delete it. We keep your name, email address, and answers so that the conversation you started can continue. Write to us and we will delete them. A request to email you the Snapshot link is deleted thirty days after you make it, unless you asked for editing tips and resources; then we keep your address until you tell us to stop. Support messages are kept for as long as it takes to help. The record of a Book Alignment Intensive purchase is kept with our business records. Our own records of visits are deleted after 180 days.

Your choices

• Ask us what we hold about you, or ask us to delete it: amber@burdhousemedia.com.
• Unsubscribe from the notes using the link in any of them.
• Clear the how-you-found-us note by clearing this site’s data in your browser.
• Block analytics with a content blocker or Google’s opt-out browser add-on.
• Turn on Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control in your browser, or use this button, and our own record of your visits is not made on this browser: Do not record my visits Safari has neither setting, so on an iPhone the button is the way. Neither switches off Google Analytics or the how-you-found-us note; a content blocker and clearing this site’s data do.

Children

This site and the Snapshot are for adults. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under thirteen; if you believe we have, tell us and we will delete it.

Security

Everything between your browser and our servers is encrypted in transit. Submissions can be read only by staff who have signed in to the review tools. Internet addresses are stored scrambled, as described above.

Changes

When this page changes, the date at the top changes with it. Anything that changes what we do with samples already sent will be explained here, not buried.

Contact

Amber Parr Burdett, BurdHouse Media. amber@burdhousemedia.com.